[Basic Minetrack] = Stone (Any, 0.25-2m) + 4 Wood (Hardwood, 0.9-1.1m) + 16 Bone (Level 11+, 0.05-0.07kg) + [Hammer] (Stone)
----------------------------------------
Another barrier stood in his path.
Jay Reis eyed the monster in front. Mangy fur patted its muscular body as it bumbled about on all fours, its talons scraping against the cavern floor. Though it looked like a bear from behind, the head was far different, with keen, dark eyes carved above a sharpened beak, and pointed ears with just a flurry of feathers sticking out. Mist flowed free from tiny beak-like nostrils as it puffed out air.
He once again consulted the Guide.
Owlbear (Level 42) – A hybrid between a giant owl and a bear. This monster is known for prowling whatever cavern it has claimed as its home.
Contains a monster core.
Research still available.
He double-checked his own Stats with a sigh.
Name: Jay Reis (Copper Age)
Vitality – 97/97
Hunger – 12/72
Thirst – 23/24
Fatigue – 43/48
Sanity – 92/100
At least I’ve finally dropped below 100 vitality again, Jay considered. These past two weeks had been a rollercoaster where his body’s strength had greatly surpassed his crafting capabilities thanks to the power of the dead leviathan’s meat, and only now could he produce the potions and meds he’d need to sustain himself.
But still, the leviathan’s flesh had been too powerful for anyone to cut, and its core had been destroyed in the intraspacial explosion, so his gear had suffered for those gains, and his primary Copper Age weapons and armor had not made any meaningful progress. He’d at least expanded into every other main Weapon Craft, rounding out to 5 where applicable and selecting the appropriate skills. Nothing he owned would be able to hold their own in a fight down here if he was alone for it.
Thankfully, Jay was no longer alone.
“We still doing this?” Kevin asked, head hunched down behind the stalagmite where they’d taken cover.
Jay shrugged. “You said it yourself. There’s iron down there. More than enough to get us both to bloomeries.”
“Yeah, but you sure we can take this?”
“We got those kobolds before, didn’t we?”
He scoffed. “But those guys were in the twenties. We have no idea how tough this’ll get.”
“It’ll be easy with the two of us working together… Speaking of, you got the bug?”
Kevin nodded. “Right here.”
He rifled through his pack and drew the strange Wyrm, with its thin, gray body and tiny beading eyes. The middle pulsed with the madness that would soon be unleashed. It writhed powerlessly between Kevin’s fingers.
Jay grimaced at the Synbug. He hated these things, even if they were necessary when teaming up for these kinds of fights.
“You sure you want to do this?” Kevin asked.
“We have no choice.” Between the rise in Natura this past week and their own block on future research, neither was getting anywhere close to Iron Age. They needed those bloomeries more than anything, and this iron vein was the best they could get without relocating completely.
Kevin sighed. “Alright, then. You know the drill. It’s about to get real weird down here.” He gripped the Synbug’s midsection where the magic was strongest. “Ready?”
“Yes.” He wasn’t, but it was going to happen either way.
“Okay. 1… 2… 3…”
Pop.
Wisps of black air surrounded them, enveloping the area in its Sanity-reducing Wyrm magic.
And Jay felt his mind fall into a sudden, comfortable ease. Like a sock slipped over a wooden board, he’d never felt better!
Yes, this would be an easy fight with the two of them. He’d beaten a D-Rank leviathan into a pulp a little more than two weeks back, using the ultimate hack to create a mind-altering explosion. This F-Rank trash would be cake!
His brilliant gamer instincts took control. With his superior vitality still in his system, after looting some cairns and getting two more Minor Speed Boons the week prior, Jay was running a heavy hybrid build that supercharged his DEX, enough to forego shields altogether. With the combined mix of pig iron in his armor and sword, his skills would raise the number of I-frames he received when dodging back and forth. His partner would only need to draw aggro every so often for Jay to land the crits.
Speaking of…
While Jay shadowboxed the fight with ultimate clarity, his fellow guild member could not say the same. His eyes had glazed over when the Synbug got popped, his insanity rising. As the two stared at each other, his cheeks turned bright red.
“What the fuck you looking at!?” Kevin shouted.
Some noob, Jay wanted to say.
“Some newb,” he decided instead. Diplomacy was better than needless antagonism.
“Oh!” Kevin scoffed. “So you think you’re so much better than me, huh? Just because you’re the one who got to college, that makes you hot shit?”
What was he talking about? “We’re in the same clan, Kevin. We spawned on the same island.” Plus, Jay had dropped out of college.
But his partner did not see it that way. He frothed at the mouth as he continued to shout obscenities, accusing Jay of being part of some The Man who was keeping him down.
Did Kevin think that Jay was a moderator or some shit? It was tough to say.
No mistake about it. His friend was definitely new to gaming. I swear, I need to pick a new server.
But before Jay could weigh the options, the ground began to quake. Both turned around as the owlbear limbered right for them on all fours.
“Here we fucking go again!” Kevin shouted at the miniboss. “You think you’re so tough, too, just because your dick’s bigger!?”
Where did that come from? Jay exhaled, remembering their place. He consulted the Guide just to be sure.
Sanity – 49/50 (Synchronized)
Of course. Updating their mental RAM to better handle Annwyn was how they circumvented Rule 5, but some people became geniuses under that strain.
And some ranted like idiots.
Just need to use this to my advantage, Jay realized.
He pointed at the owlbear. “That guy’s the one who told me you suck. Not me. I had nothing to do with it. I think you’ll make a great guild captain when you level up enough. But not him. He wanted you kicked out.”
Kevin’s eyes twitched with the revelation, and he rushed forth without another word, his heavy copper armor clattering and reinforced spear in hand.
And Jay grinned, seeing the lifehack play out. His friend would thank him later when they were swimming in iron.
The two sides engaged, with Kevin [Bracing] against the owlbear’s fury, while Jay dashed behind, aiming for the boss’s flank. His legs quaked against its overpowered fury.
But Jay unleashed a [Power Attack] from behind, the strength of his Pig Iron+3 sword energized his skill to maximize damage output. Despite the level difference, the owlbear shuddered against such a direct hit.
Its head spun around. A full one-hundred-eighty degrees, like an owl.
The kick came quick, but Jay had [Leaped] to safety before it could land. A shockwave rolled out in his afterimage, and he rushed forth again.
The owlbear crowed as Kevin sent forth a set of devastating attacks of his own, his copper spear upscaled to some ridiculous amount to hold its own in such a direct fight.
The boss spun its head around, once again leaving it vulnerable from behind. Jay exploited the gap, using a [Rend] to debuff its armor before dropping another [Power Attack] to maximize his DPS. The owlbear roared in fresh agony, its blood gushing free.
But Jay’s invisible energy bar had hit its minimum, so he scrambled back a foot and [Recovered].
The owlbear got ready to hit Jay now that he was immobile, but Kevin refused to let up, cheeks bright red as he pelted the monster with his spear. Despite his trash DPS, the constant aggro was more than this miniboss could handle, and it once again focused on the man in front. Kevin yelped as his armor got rocked, his copper shield already beginning to crack.
And Jay dove forth, leveraging his skills to break through the owlbear’s hide before it shifted attention.
This was the combo that the two had when together. Kevin would launch into a frenzy that pulled all the mobs to him, a tank who knew how best to hold aggro. Meanwhile, Jay was the glass-cannon rogue. His medium pig iron-plated armor set lacked the durability and strength of his original copper, but the affinity boost to his skills more than made up for it, stacking his mobility and his damage to better fit his new DPS build.
When the two partied as one, they could perform these high-level raids on their own. It was genius!
The owlbear’s health bar fell too low, and it jumped into its second boss phase, choosing to stand atop its hind legs instead of all fours. Its owl head jerked back and forth, keen eyes burning hatred as it tried to decide which of the two was about to get whomped.
It chose Jay, claw swiping forth with a speed he did not expect.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Snap.
His body tumbled into the cave floor as his gloves were shattered from the direct hit. Cracks formed on the rest of his armor set from the sudden blow.
He coughed blood with a frown. What kind of bullshit attack was that? It didn’t telegraph anything before the hit. Terrible game design!
“Rich piece of shit!” Kevin jeered on the owlbear’s flank, agreeing with Jay’s sentiment. “Standing atop your gilded fucking castle. I’ll fuck you up, asshole!”
The owlbear stumbled as Kevin landed a crit of his own, striking the boss’s knees.
Jay used the chance to [Leap] forth, following it with a [Power Attack] and a set of [Slashes] into its open wound.
But the owlbear still had juice left and stood back up, once again readying another unreadable attack.
Kevin took this round.
He screamed as the boss made a combo attack, its claws breaking against his heavy armor in a dozen swipes before finishing with a devastating landing. Jay heard the token snaps as parts of his armor set crumbled into dust. He fell to his knees, body paralyzed from some kind of stun debuff they had not seen until now.
The owlbear beamed, salivating at the easy kill in front. Kevin gasped for air, unable to do anything else.
And Jay threw everything into offense. This was his lifelong guild mate. His Earth friend! Still new to online gaming but holding his own all the same. Jay couldn’t just leave him to die!
He expended everything into these combos. [Rend], [Slash], [Power Attack], [Leap]. The owlbear wheezed as so much damage came in at once, worn body gushing more viscera through open wounds.
But it did not die.
Instead, the owlbear rose onto its hind legs, beating eyes narrowing into his own. It snapped its claws for another devastating set of attacks, the kind he would not survive against.
Jay gulped, once again on the retreat.
His enemy limbered forth, ready to kill.
Until a rock struck its head. Its eyes widened and it snapped around, another one-hundred-eighty degrees as it sought out its foe.
Kevin laughed. “Yeah! That’s right! Don’t you walk away from me. I’m the big man! Not you. Me!”
And Jay [Leaped] forth. This was it. His final crit. He only had one [Power Attack] left before hitting zero, and he needed to use it best.
The owlbear’s head snapped back to face him, dark eyes widening as it watched the sword coming right for it. Jay unleashed his battle cry and swung.
A crack reverberated out when its skull got struck.
It tumbled to the ground. Dead.
And Jay grinned wide, seeing this boss finally defeated. If only he could check the damage chart. He’d love to see how much DPS he’d unleashed.
Kevin cackled nearby. “Don’t you try to screw me on this one and steal the core.”
That was right. They’d agreed beforehand that Kevin would get to keep it while Jay got the bulk of the mats for his gear…
But that was before he got the final hit, and part of him wondered if it was really better this way.
“Greed,” he declared.
Kevin gaped. “Huh?”
“I choose Greed. We’ll roll for it.”
“What are you talking about? I told you before that I need it.”
Jay recoiled as though he’d been stabbed. He used “Need!?” Why didn’t Jay think of that!?
He pounded his fist into the ground, his teeth clenched. “Dammit! We’ll roll next time!”
“Roll for what?” Kevin asked.
He rubbed his eyes, feeling like such an idiot for having to explain how the game mechanic worked. “Need rolls override Greed rolls.” He gasped. “What the hell was I thinking!? You always choose Need if you want the loot.”
“I don’t get i–”
“The core’s yours,” Jay scoffed. “Just take it. The game won’t let me have it anyway!” He buried his face in his palms, wanting nothing more than to claw off his skin for being so stupid.
What a terrible day this had become!
* * *
Whack, whack. Whack, whack. Whack, whack.
Jay and Kevin clattered their hammers into the basic minetracks, nailing their bone nails from the granite tracks into the wooden boards beneath. They moved quickly, knowing how little time they’d have before the Synbug’s magic finally faded for good and Rule 5 took sway again.
He took a swig from his waterskin and checked his Stat.
Sanity – 68/71 (Desynchronizing)
Another hour, give or take, and they’d be back to normal thinking. Until then, Jay would just have to keep dragging this newb through the meta.
“How you doing?” he asked.
Kevin wiped the sweat from his brow. “Less… Jumpy. I guess. Still feels like they’re out to get us, though. You?”
Jay groaned. “I just don’t understand why the Guide tags me as low sanity every time I figure out we’re in a game. It should be the opposite, really.”
“We can’t all be from a nice neighborhood… With rich schools, and full fridges, and assholes not looking down on it.” He scoffed. “You don’t know how good you’ve got it, Jay.”
“Good? I’m here now, aren’t I? This isn’t like how we were on Earth.”
“Right, that’s right.” Kevin grunted. “God, this sanity thing is a bitch.”
“At least we’re making a lot of progress today.”
“Yeah, we are.”
Little more than two weeks back, Jay would not have needed to do this. He’d owned his Bag ‘a Mats that let him hold thousands of pounds of materials in a tiny backpack without assuming the weight, and therefore could skip around these caverns without the slightest bit of risk.
But then he’d sacrificed it to keep the rest of the island safe, and he didn’t realize just how much he’d lost until trying to go back to carrying everything by hand. Getting to the nearest vein took ages, and he couldn’t carry more than a couple hundred kilograms, even with his master-class body.
Another nail got slammed in place, his copper hammer starting to crack again. Jay hobbled back for a quick repair, again overestimating his body’s strength.
That was another crisis he’d weathered. After making the mistake of consuming pure meat from the D-Rank leviathan they killed, his body’s strength had leaped miles beyond his crafting capabilities, with a vitality in the 200s. Though he spent the day strong enough to punch through boulders and jump hundreds of feet in the air, even without his skill, he’d been incapable of crafting teas or medicine to keep his other Stats in check. With the explosion in Natura’s strength in the night that followed, his life had never been more miserable than those first few days.
But thankfully, after gorging on nothing but lifeberries and level 1 monster meat, his diet had plummeted into a more manageable medium, now crested just below 100 before the next tier would be manufactured. From what he understood, this meant his body was ready for Iron Age, even if his gear wasn’t there yet.
Just need to keep going. Once he and Kevin tapped into this vein, they’d unlock bloomeries, which let them craft iron bars directly from regular iron veins without having to go all the way to the Evershadow for those pure veins. Jay had floated the idea of setting up workshops there to get the research rolling, but he hadn’t realized how aggressive monsters could be once he entered their territory, and they started invading the moment they set up their first crude furnace. But by sharing a minetrack instead, they would each be able to cart their finished goods back to their home base with half of the resources expended.
A win-win for them both. The kind that Natura despised.
Oh well. So long as they dropped a Synbug before each of these roadblocks, the two of them would make it to E-Rank together.
All about gaming the game, Jay mused.
“There you are,” Naomi hailed from nearby. “I see you’re both playing nice.”
Jay turned around. Where his friend had once worn a blue ranger cloak made from troll hide, she’d since upgraded into a lighter, verdant green, with jungle camouflage slathered along the length. Her eyes were just as dark and piercing as always, moreso with her in the cave with them.
“Hey, Naomi,” Kevin said. “You here to help? Because we already popped the bug.”
“Afraid not. But I do need you both to come with me.”
“Can’t,” Jay said. “We only have half an hour left to finish this stretch.”
Naomi yawned. “It’ll have to wait.”
“Come on! We’re almost there.”
“I don’t think you get it, Jay. I need you to come with me.”
She’s Needing too!? He’d lost the roll before it began, twice in one day!
Jay rubbed his eyes, once again remembering the insanity. There aren’t rolls for loot, you silly goose, he reminded himself.
Kevin sauntered forth. “What’s going on, Naomi.”
“An Expat got murdered. We’re rounding everyone up to find out why.”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Jay asked. “If it wasn’t Natura at night, then there’s the monsters during the day."
But Naomi only shook her head.
“No,” she explained. “This was one of us.”
Name: Jay Reis (Copper Age)
Vitality – 83/97 (Wounded+3 (Treated+3))
Hunger – 9/72
Thirst – 20/24
Fatigue – 38/48
Sanity – 67/70 (Desynchronizing)
Main Crafts: Alchemy 2, Armor Crafting 2, Base Building 3, Cooking 2, Jewelry 2, Medicine 2, Tailoring 2, Tool Crafting 3, Weapon Crafting 2.
Weapon Crafts: Axes 5, Bows 5, Clubs 5, Daggers 5, Spears 5, Swords 9.
Armor Crafts: Heavy Armor 5, Light Armor 5, Medium Armor 6, Shields 6.
Character Skills:
[Forbidden Knowledge]
Armor Skills:
Heavy Armor: [Push], [Stampede]
Medium Armor: [Recover], [Leap], [Waterform]
Light Armor: [Dash], [Feather Fall]
Shield: [Brace], [Track], [Break]
Weapon Skills:
Axes: [Chop], [Whirlwind]
Bows: [Sharpshooter], [Longshot]
Clubs: [Bash], [Paralyze]
Daggers: [Slice], [Flourish]
Spears: [Thrust], [Sweep]
Swords: [Power Attack], [Slash], [Rend], [Parry]
Armor:
[Pig Ironplated Hat] (Affinity+3), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+1)
[Pig Ironplated Coat] (Affinity+3), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+1)
[Pig Ironplated Leggings] (Affinity+3), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+1)
[Pig Ironplated Shoes] (Affinity+3), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+1)
[Silver Amulet]: Socketed with [Chipped Tourmaline] (Tempus)
[Silver Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Ruby] (Ignis)
[Silver Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Ruby] (Ignis)
Weapons:
[Pig Iron Sword+3] (Affinity+4), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+2), (Stable+1)
[Wooden Bow+3] (Elemental), (Reinforced+2): Socketed with [Chipped Ruby] (Ignis)
[Basic Leather Quiver]: Contains 20 [Silver-tipped Arrows] (Elemental+1)
[9mm Semi-Automatic Pistol] (Accurate+2), (Quick): Contains 3 [9mm Cartridge] (JHP)
Tools:
[Copper Knife+3]
[Copper Axe+3]
[Copper Hammer+3]
[Copper Pickaxe+3]
[Copper Shovel+3]
Boons:
[Minor (Speed)] (x3)